After election, local minority students cope with insults, fear

ARLINGTON, Va. — Three days after Election Day, President Barack Obama used his last Veterans Day speech to urge Americans to learn from the example of veterans as a divided nation seeks to “forge unity” after the bitter 2016 campaign.

Obama, in remarks at Arlington National Cemetery, noted that Veterans Day often comes on the heels of hard-fought campaigns that “lay bare disagreements across our nation.”

“But the American instinct has never been to find isolation in opposite corners,” Obama said. “It is to find strength in our common creed, to forge unity from our great diversity, to maintain that strength and unity even when it is hard.”

He added that now that the election is over, “as we search for ways to come together, to reconnect with one another and with the principles that are more enduring than transitory politics, some of our best examples are the men and women we salute on Veterans Day.”

—Associated Press

Post-election tension has led to a number of racially charged incidents in all levels of Greeley schools, leading some minority students to seek support from counselors and leading others to fear for their future, interviews with officials and students have revealed.

At UNC, students have reported hearing the N-word more often since Tuesday's election, and many students have taken advantage of counseling centers and safe spaces set up around campus.

In Greeley's middle and high schools, more students are going to counselors and others are reporting similar hostile interactions.

The incidents in local schools mirror similar — and more severe — incidents nationwide that have taken place since voters Tuesday elected Donald Trump president of the United States, although local officials say the mood has quieted as the week has gone on.

“We want to assure the community that our kids are safe.

— Theresa Myers, Greeley-Evans School District 6 spokeswoman

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"We want to assure the community that our kids are safe," Greeley-Evans School District 6 spokeswoman Theresa Myers said. "This has been a great educational opportunity for our schools."

District 6 board member Rhonda Solis took to Facebook on Thursday to post about things she has seen or heard since the election, saying "it's started already in Greeley."

"I had a kiddo ask me if her and brothers will be sent to Mexico and some teachers report students crying in their classrooms," Solis' post read in part. "So please, please save your breathe of telling people that they are over reacting. The energy here is comparable to 2006 when the raids happened."

Solis, who refused an interview request, is likely referring to ICE raids at then-Swift and Co. meatpacking plant in northeast Greeley that saw hundreds of immigrant workers without documentation arrested and deported.

Northridge High School senior Tayz Enriquez has seen the fear firsthand.

A white male student Wednesday told Enriquez to "…have fun on the other side of the wall," Enriquez said.

The story went semi-viral this week when national writer and activist Shaun King tweeted a screenshot of Enriquez's Facebook post describing the incident.

Myers confirmed the Northridge incident, and though she said things had quieted down through the week, she said similar incidents have happened at all of the district's secondary schools.

Myers, who spoke on behalf of other administrators who were also contacted for this story, said all of the situations have been handled well, and she said Greeley schools are still a safe place for all students.

Myers related another story, this one at Greeley West High School, in which one student made racist and bigoted comments that led to pushing. One student was suspended.

"They came back to the same class, and the teacher facilitated an incredible classroom discussion," Myers said. "The two kids apologized to each other and they were crying and hugging each other. That's what education is about, facilitating those kinds of conversations."

One similar conversation in a UNC classroom prompted a parent of a Trump-supporting student to contact The Tribune. Mike Manuel said his daughter was put on the spot to answer for her vote during what he called a "hate Trump" session in a psychology class Wednesday.

Assistant professor Molly Jameson said the characterization of the class was false, and that all viewpoints were welcomed. She decided to steer the class discussion to the election that day because of numerous emails from students who said they were fearful after Trump was elected.

Jameson said she has heard similar things around campus.

"I have heard from black students who have been called the N-word on campus; students who are Muslim who didn't come to classes (Wednesday) because they're afraid," Jameson said. "We have a large number of Latino students who say they're terrified for themselves and their community."

In a phone interview Friday morning, Enriquez described conversations with her 7- and 5-year-old sisters in which she reassured them everything would be OK, even while the 5-year-old wondered whether their mom would be deported. She said she was shocked to hear her 5-year-old sister use the term "anchor babies" in the run-up to the election and in reference to whether they would be deported too.

Enriquez said she has cried a few times, based both on those conversations and after her own incident at school. Despite the other student chanting "Trump 2016," and "Build That Wall," Enriquez, who will be the first in her family to graduate high school and attend college, said she has seen positive things come from the incident. About 60 Northridge students on Friday marched around the outskirts of campus chanting "Unity!" and other slogans.

And since King posted Enriquez's status Wednesday — one of dozens of similar stories King has posted on his Twitter page — it has been shared more than 2,000 times on Twitter.

"It feels very bittersweet, just the fact that my incident was acknowledged," Enriquez said. "People were able to reach out…It just felt really good."

Tyler Silvy covers education for The Greeley Tribune. Reach him at tsilvy@greeleytribune.com. Connect with him at Facebook..com/TylerSilvy or @TylerSilvy on Twitter.

Obama addresses divided nation

ARLINGTON, Va. — Three days after Election Day, President Barack Obama used his last Veterans Day speech to urge Americans to learn from the example of veterans as a divided nation seeks to “forge unity” after the bitter 2016 campaign.

Obama, in remarks at Arlington National Cemetery, noted that Veterans Day often comes on the heels of hard-fought campaigns that “lay bare disagreements across our nation.”

“But the American instinct has never been to find isolation in opposite corners,” Obama said. “It is to find strength in our common creed, to forge unity from our great diversity, to maintain that strength and unity even when it is hard.”

He added that now that the election is over, “as we search for ways to come together, to reconnect with one another and with the principles that are more enduring than transitory politics, some of our best examples are the men and women we salute on Veterans Day.”